New to Analog and just played my first record in

Grannyring, I'm right in the middle of what seems a long, long, road to getting my analog to sound the way I want. Tvad's experience mirrors mine, the only difference is, I have around 2,000 lps so I'm very motivated to get my vinyl setup right.

I think you could get a much better taste of what analog is about with a VPI Scout, Thorens TD160 or something similar. I believe you will have to spend at least 1k to get that taste.

Once you've gotten that taste, you may be in for a very long trail down a dark winding road. At this point, I would call the trail to analog bliss a trip through the wilderness. There are so many choices in analog, and making the right choice is damn difficult.

Perhaps my expectations are too great for analog, but I don't find it to be a plug and play instant bliss exercise. Cd players are plug and play, this is damn hard work! Be prepared for a long and difficult trip if you get bitten by the analog bug!

Sns has it right - analog IS a long hard road, especially if you've spent the last 15-20 years in the digital wilderness. Most folks ask what the path to analog nirvana is and the simple answer is there isn't one: however, I do believe one must spend in the $400-600 range to get an idea of what is possible from analog - a used Rega P[lanar]3 and a decent MM cart, properly set up will get you 80+% of the way there. Not to be cynical, but there's a reason why, when CDs first appeared, they (mostly) blew Joe Consumer's turntable into the weeds - cheap resonant plastic, poorly made with an extremely mediocre motor and needle is nobody's friend; at the same time, pre-recorded cassettes were outselling vinyl by a large margin (chew on that for a while...) mostly due to convenience, longevity and inferior LP playback equipment (sorry Bill, just like that nasty B&O you're hoping for something from). I certainly don't blame you for trying, but I do complain that you bemoan the fact that the POS isn't as good as your cd player...there is after all a reason why it was only $50. But, if you only have 5 records, why bother to spend the money? Hardware after all is merely a vehicle for the software at hand - I have 5000 LPs and 200 CDs, so it's pretty easy to choose where to put the money.

It is no coincidence that society has embraced the Ipod as well - cheap, efficient and functional - all the things analog isn't. Analog will forever remain a niche market as long as there is no demand (en mass) for anything better . With the advancements in video we see today, from hardware (plasma, LCD) to the software (Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, HDTV, etc, etc), it stuns me there hasn't been a commesurate demand for higher fidelity in the aural realm. The problem is, nobody gives a damn as sound (or noise, as I prefer) has become ubiquitous, and hence denigrated. Why is it that every public environment one wanders into today is "contaminated" with sound/noise?? One could argue that people are so conditioned by it, that without it the silence would be deafening to them (thus the need to carry a personal noisemaking doo-doo in the form of a cell phone/blackberry/blahblahblah). I could ramble on about this ad nauseum. Please enjoy the tunes regardless of your format - if it works for you, so be it. Cheers,

-Richard

Grannyring you asked a question and it was answered.In fact the replies came from very knowledgeable posters.If the responses were not what you wanted to hear please dont feel that you dont belong.No one put you down,actually from what I read they helped a great deal.You can always find someone stating that a $50 stage is better then some $500 stages.This alone does not make it so.In fact some of the posters believe Digital surpass' Analog and I have know idea as to how anyone can think that.
Have fun with your system

Palasr,

Maybe you can loan Ring your WKRP TT and he will hear what it's all about in the world of analog. What is the $$$ value on a used one? =8^)

Very good and well thought out writing.

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Ejlif, you wrote, and I understand it's just your opinion, but it's stated as a rather large declarative, a generalization and perhaps even value judgement that (imho) has lost its edge, or point, or even relevance (especially if you begin to consider all of the implications)...

You wrote...

>>It's a well known fact that good vinyl beats digital every time<<

imho, that "fact" is changing, the "fact" of the matter is rapidly changing...

Just as Rushton made a reasonable and practical suggestion to Grannyring at the outset of this thread, I would like to make a similar suggestion:

I suggest that you go listen to music you are very familiar with on vinyl but on the system of someone who has taken reasonable care in his/her setup of a

MacMini,

a USB asynch DAC, such as Ultra Fi's iRoc, connected to the MacMini with a quality USB cable, such as a Ridge Street Audio Poeima!!! or a Synergistic Research Tesla,

which is connected to quality single ended ICs to the preamp...

someone who has carefully ripped their CDs into lossless format...

someone who has correctly and carefully allowed proper breakin on all of the above...

and I suggest that you might very easily have serious second thoughts about your opinion...

>>It's a well known fact that good vinyl beats digital every time<<

Why not try it and report back...?

Nothing ventured... nothing gained...

otherwise, it's just the same-old same-old and don't bother me with the possibility of having, really having, more of what I really like...

Happy listenting...

Ed

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